Conundrum
by intoxicatedasphyxiation
Summary: Something goes horribly wrong during the fight between Ino and Sakura, triggering behavioral differences and changing the outcome of events fated to come. Unnerved by this newfound mystery, Shikamaru sets out to unravel the enigma that is his own teammate.
1. Chapter One: Checkmate

**Disclaimer: **I only own the circumstances that have inflicted change.

**Summary: **Something goes horribly wrong during the fight between Ino and Sakura, triggering behavioral differences and changing the outcome of events fated to come. Unnerved by this newfound mystery, Shikamaru sets out to unravel the enigma that is his own teammate.

* * *

**Conundrum**

_By intoxicatedasphyxiation_

* * *

**.01**

For the second time after the fourth match was called, he wondered if the system was rigged.

In the grand scheme of things, a trivial rivalry between two genin that had festered since their academy days was not so paramount or exclusive in the armed forces of the village that it required an early intervention by a higher authority, but Shikamaru couldn't help but pander to the pooling suspicion in his gut.

The chances of this match being called, after all, had been as statistically likely as Chōji selecting a different outlet for their team dinners.

If he had been more superstitious, he may have chalked it up as fate instead, but the gears of his mind were not created to cater to such thinking. Conventional thinking would dismiss it as mere coincidence, but there was no doubt in his mind that certain advantages were tilted in the general direction of the home team. After all, this reigned true for every Chūnin Selection Exam in every country.

As always, the home ground advantage lay predominately in the number of in-village candidates who signed up for the exam. Through the sheer mechanics of quantity alone, this increased the likelihood of local shinobi reaching the finish line. Teams from the same village were also more likely to form alliances against foreigners in order to decrease the likelihood of unknown entities and threats, and if anything, Konohagakure no Sato was particularly renowned for its emphasis on camaraderie and teamwork.

Only a visually impaired moron wouldn't have noticed the wonderful coincidence that arrived gift wrapped in the form of the first match of the preliminaries. _Uchiha Sasuke vs. Akadō Yoroi. _All rumors of favoritism were never completely groundless and Shikamaru had been there in the dark forest when two-thirds of Team Seven were down for the count. All who were present had seen the strange revival of the fallen Uchiha and it didn't take an idiot to know that something had gone terribly wrong on a scale that went beyond mere genin.

The fact that Sasuke had been spirited away by his teacher immediately after the match spoke volumes about the so-called coincidences of the match-ups of the preliminaries.

"Do you think she'll win?" Chōji whispered, drawing his attention back to the match below.

"With every minute that passes, the likelihood of that decreases," he replied, "they'll probably tie."

Wanting their teammate to win went without saying, but realism often stood in the way of wishful thinking. Judging by the postures of the referee and some of the other senior spectators, it seemed that they too didn't expect the match to turn out any other way.

It had been ten minutes already without either party gaining a significant advantage. There had been no flashy techniques either, which made it a lousy showing. Shikamaru would have considered it meaningless too, had he not attended the same classes as the girls below. For a boring match, the tension reeked like unmasked subtext in a civilian drama.

He winced when Ino hurled her newly-butchered hair at Sakura's feet.

Well, for every plot, there had to be a climax at some point. If anything, it wasn't uncharacteristic of her to let her temper get the best of her. Out of all the girls whose names he knew, Ino was the only one who lived up to her undisputed title of queen-bee drama-queen. In the forest, they had seen Sakura mutilating her long hair to escape the grasp of the Oto kunoichi and understood the sacrifice it took to make that decision. Simply mirroring that gesture was more than childish—it revealed all of Ino's deep seeded desires to catch up to a girl she had once thought she left behind.

_Pride and desperation are a terrible mix_, he mused when her fingers formed her trademark technique.

"How useless," taunted her pink-haired rival, who proceeded to clinically dissect Ino's _Ninpou: Shintenshin no Jutsu_ by announcing its weaknesses. Shikamaru's eyes flickered towards the foreign shinobi in the room as the security breach of the clan-specific jutsu took place and filed the moment into his mind palace for future reference. Had this been a deliberate revelation on Sakura's behalf? By revealing the Shintenshin's weaknesses, she had effectively massacred Ino's chances of using it against anyone else in the room who didn't already know the technique. On the other hand, if it had been done out of sheer arrogance and ignorance…

Had Ino favored a more highly classified infiltration technique, someone would have had to intervene.

He didn't need to look at his team to guess the state of their thoughts. Having a key technique exposed _through discussion_ was the least of their problems when all that Sakura recited came out as truth. Espionage techniques were not suited for combat, much less one-on-one duels. It only worked in the Ino-Shika-Chō formation, as their team specialized in backing her up and guarding her inanimate body.

He sighed in disapproval as the shouting match continued below. For exam conditions, the two girls had it easy. Had the odds been stacked against them, either one could have been paired against a more ruthless opponent, if not their own teammates. He wondered who would serve as the sacrificial lamb against the kohl-eyed shinobi from Suna.

Unlike Chōji, Shikamaru didn't hold his breath when Ino faked the launch of her technique to ensnare her opponent's ankles with the scattered remnants of her hair. A moment's reconsideration and a modicum of faith in his teammate's skills had been all he needed to piece together Ino's plan. After all, since Ino and Sakura matched in strength, intelligence would have to determine the winner.

The tension in the room had shifted to one of greater excitement in anticipation of the denouement.

"_Checkmate,_" he whispered as Ino projected her mind into her opponent's. Knowledge of the technique and academy-taught strategic skills wouldn't aid the pinkette now. In a battle of wills, the dominant personality always triumphed and Ino wasn't the type to lose in a contest of barking dogs.

"I, Haruno Sakura," said the body that housed two souls, "would like to for—"

"DON'T DO IT, SAKURA-CHAN!" screamed Naruto, who had cupped his hands around his mouth to amplify his volume. Shikamaru grimaced. If only moral support could be officially categorized as interference…

All hell broke loose when Ino's inanimate body began to convulse, followed shortly by Sakura's.

For a match that thrived on stalemate fighting, this was as tense as it would ever get, as Shikamaru didn't think that Sakura was capable of harming herself in order to force Ino out.

Sakura's hands were clutching at her hair as though her head was in physical pain while Ino bent forward, both palms pressing against the ground so that she wouldn't double over. For supposed kunoichi, their groans could have been mistaken as screams.

Seconds passed like minutes and Shikamaru's eyes drifted back and forth between the two. Had Naruto's screams broken Ino's hold? The host's mind was never fully suppressed, but rather kicked to the curb, making it possible for the victim to regain a solid foothold if they had enough awareness and willpower to do so. Had he underestimated Sakura?

Had Ino underestimated her childhood friend?

Ino pushed herself up, sitting back on her heels, as though adjusting to the shock of waking from her body's temporary slumber. Sakura, on the other hand, was staring in horror at the blonde.

A frightening silence descended upon the hall as their gazes met.

"What… is _this_?" Ino demanded, her voice low and surging with an underlying fury. Her body shook as she stared up in outrage at Sakura. Never before had Shikamaru ever seen his teammate this angry.

"_You tell me!_" shrieked Sakura, her voice lilted in fear. Her fingers were still intertwined in the Shintenshin's release position. It wasn't long before she let out another scream, her head snapping backwards and her arms outstretching as her body arched. She fell backwards onto the floor, thrashing around amidst the blonde hair that littered the area.

"_What did you do?_" she cried hoarsely, tears streaming down her cheeks as she stared aimlessly at the ceiling of the hall.

Ino, on the other hand, looked equally as shaken as she sat there, unmoving, on her knees. She looked pale, as though she had seen a ghost.

Shikamaru turned to Chōji, who was already glancing over at him as though he was some guidance prophet who could decipher the situation below. A blanket of muted chatter enveloped the balconies where all the teams rested, no doubt speculating about the occurrence below.

"Can you continue?" asked the referee, who coughed into his fist.

Ino merely stared blankly ahead at Sakura's weeping form, as though shell-shocked. The pink-haired kunoichi, on the other hand, shook her head in response to the question.

"I need verbal confirmation," he said, crouching down beside her, "can you continue?"

Sakura's response, though unheard, was clear the moment Gekkō Hayate called the match in Ino's favor.

Shikamaru barely registered his teacher's movement as both jōnin-sensei ventured below to retrieve their respective students. His hand tightened around the railing as he saw Asuma-sensei reaching out to Ino, who violently slapped his arm away.

"_Don't you dare touch me,_" she snarled, pulling herself up and away from their teacher's grasp. Her eyes flickered back and forth, reflecting her turbulent trains of thought, before she finally expanded her outlook to the world around her. Her eyes narrowed when she looked up, catching him off guard with a glare. A blink later and the moment passed, her short hair flipping as she spun on her heels, leaving their baffled teacher behind. She slipped away through the double doors that led out of the hall.

Sakura, on the other hand, had been carried up by Kakashi-sensei, who placed her on the floor, aligning her so that she rested with her back up against the wall. Almost immediately, she opted for an inward fetal curl, sinking sideways against the hardened ground as her short hair pooled around her face like a curtain. As various teams gathered around for a closer look, she withdrew further into herself, whimpering softly as her teacher shooed the masses away.

From a respectful distance, Shikamaru let his mind sift through the mess that had occurred under a minute ago. Had Sakura underestimated the effect of Ino's mind transfer? He'd never seen anyone react this badly to the Shintenshin before, but then again, there was always a first to everything. Perhaps Ino had been privy to some unsavory thoughts? Who knew what she found in there? The clan jutsu wasn't publically shared with outsiders for a reason—it allowed the user unrestrained access to not only their victims' minds, but by extension their nerve functions, and thus their bodies. The amount of havoc the user could unleash both psychologically and physically went unsaid, and in the hands of a preteen with a dangerous temper and vindictive streak, the amount of callous damage could undoubtedly be multiplied tenfold.

To even imagine that Ino would do such a thing… what did that say about him?

Or even their team, as a whole?

The famed Copy Nin crouched by his student, moving her hair out of her face as he voiced soft assurances and queries alike. The girl kept shaking her head, turning away to draw further into her own bubble. Naruto stood a short distance away, watchful and concerned, looking helpless in light of this new crisis. He looked like he wanted to scoop up his fallen teammate and comfort her closely, but was at the same time aware of the glass wall that isolated them both and kept his desired actions as mere thoughts. It was hardly uncharacteristic—his crush on the girl was well known.

Shikamaru empathized with the blond's helplessness and looked away.

This mess was something better left to the medics and their teachers.

"What happened?" Chōji asked, glancing back and forth between Shikamaru and Asuma-sensei, whose attention was equally focused on the mewling kunoichi and the set of double doors Ino had escaped through.

"I'm not sure," their teacher said, "but Sakura should be taken to the medics. For sedation, at the very least."

"I agree." Kakashi concurred, picking the girl up. She looked fragile in his arms. "Rest is probably best for now. You going to find yours?"

"Yeah," replied Asuma, "hopefully Ino will cool down by then." He turned to his remaining students. "You two able to hold out?"

"Sure." Shikamaru shrugged, while Chōji nodded.

"I'll treat you if you win," their teacher reminded before leaving.

As Chōji didn't announce it, he knew that the next match wasn't his. Resting lethargically against the railing, he tilted his head back to stare up at the ceiling. Unlike clouds, ceiling panels were far too constrictive in encouraging contemplative thought.

"Tenten's in trouble," remarked Chōji, the ever astute observer, "that Suna-nin is strong."

As if the cooling blasts of wind weren't dead giveaways. It didn't take a genius to know that this would be a one-way massacre. Konoha's weapon specialist would have to learn about weakness exploitation the hard way.

"Hey Chōji," he called out, "what do you think the odds are of two chicks having to fight, followed by another pair?"

His best friend merely furrowed his brow in deep thought, coming up with nothing.

"To break the pattern," he continued, studying the wall, "they'll pair the last two chicks against guys."

"If you say so," replied Chōji, "you're usually right about these things."

Finding no patterns of interest in the concrete, he glanced over at Naruto. The blond was leaning against the same railing some distance away, staring dejectedly at the fight below. The absence of his team and the considerable lack of outbursts amplified his isolation. Shikamaru remembered a time when all children were advised by their parents to stay away from the orange eyesore and he couldn't figure out why. He had made plenty of deductions since then, but even his father had refused to confirm any of them, and on top of that, _heavily advised_ him to stop delving so deeply into it.

That order alone had given him more information than he expected. After all, his father had taught him that sometimes the most informative statements came from those who refused to say anything. More was less, and so on. His father was always the type who enjoyed listening to his various deductions and poking holes in his theories, but such banter stopped whenever he brought up Naruto, the social outcast of his generation.

For his father, the Jōnin Commander of the village, to make such a statement… the implications of that were _huge_.

Hands shoved into his pockets, he sauntered over to the underrated class enigma.

The lack of attention he received piqued his own. For Naruto, an absence of histrionics indicated thoughtfulness or depression, and judging by his earlier expression of helplessness, Shikamaru was inclined to consider both.

"She'll be in good hands," he said, "the medics are supposed to be trained for every situation."

A long silence followed, permeated only by the sound of combat below.

"Why did Ino use a technique like that?" the blond asked, after a while. Shikamaru could hear the confusion in his voice, though it was twisted with something else he couldn't quite name. "I thought they were friends."

"Once." He corrected. "They haven't been for a while."

"It doesn't make sense."

"No. It doesn't."

His mind reeled back to the fight. Even though Sakura appeared the greater victim, Ino had been no less affected by the event. Her anger was telling—if an underhanded victory had been her sole intention, she would have been complacent and blasé, justifying her actions with the finesse of an attorney. After all, hadn't she always evened the score with girls who dared to cross her?

Or was she simply a better actress than he knew?

He quickly cleared his head of the assumption. It wouldn't do to doubt his teammate now during this milestone of their careers. He wondered if others perceived the fight's outcome the way Naruto did and blamed Ino for the whole thing.

He wondered if they only did so in passing.

Either way, a fixed perception was bad enough if one person believed it to be true.

"I don't think she did it deliberately." Shikamaru stated confidently. It would be bad if team rivalry extended beyond the two girls and he liked Naruto enough that a developing impasse between their teams would be more troublesome than it was worth. "Something happened to Ino too. She's pushy and annoying, but she'd never speak to Asuma-sensei like that."

"Then what happened?" Naruto asked imploringly, his face brimming with unfeigned confusion. He looked as eager to listen as he would ever get.

Shikamaru was almost sorry that he didn't have an answer to give.

"I don't know," he replied, as the referee called the match below and the electronic board lit up with his name, signaling his match. "I really don't know."

* * *

Neither Ino nor Asuma-sensei returned by the time the matchups for the finals were announced.

Naruto had perked up by then, empowered by his own victory. The idea of being overwhelmed by an abundance of orange was a daunting thought—how Kiba had handled it, Shikamaru would never know. His own match had taken place before that, against the same girl from Oto that his team had battled in the forest. The advantage had been hers to begin with, as she had seen his Kagemane at work in the forest and knew how to plan around it.

He, on the other hand, had to work from scratch.

Boy, did she make him work.

He only wished Ino had been around. While scavenging the girl's brain, she ought to have picked up a few of the girl's techniques or gotten a good gauge of the girl's fighting inclinations. A warning beforehand would have given him an even start. The needles and bells were a creative combo and might've worked if the girl had paid more attention to every shadow in sight.

She had called him a one-trick pony.

But being a one-trick pony was only a drawback if one lacked the ability to adapt accordingly.

Out of the ten finalists, six were from Konoha. Sixty percent meant that they still held the home ground advantage, though only by a narrow margin. The team from Suna was the major foreign factor to look out for, formidable in all the ways that embodied their home country, while Shikamaru had seen the remaining Oto-nin's favored technique so many times that it barely fazed him anymore.

The matches were drawn randomly via numbers from a box. There honestly weren't any opponents that he was eager to face. His only consolation had been the fact that neither Naruto nor Ino would face him. At least for the first round. He had, however, been paired against quite an unsavory character…

He wasn't looking forward to the showdown.

Gaining entry to the hospital had been a challenging feat once the staff caught sight of Naruto, who refused to tone down the minute they arrived. Though lacking in social skills, Shikamaru wasn't unfamiliar with the concept of negotiation and policy recitation, so hustling the blond in without incident went over more smoothly than he expected. It was, however, still a tedious affair, so he made a mental reminder to come alone in the future.

He found Chōji amidst food baskets, sleeping soundly in the comfort of a private room. Finding Sakura had been much harder, as she was placed in the psychiatric ward under stricter surveillance. There were fewer adornments in her room and she looked almost pale against her backdrop of pink hair.

"SAKURA-CHAN!" Naruto exclaimed, with a voice that could wake the dead.

"She's under sedation," he replied in irritation, waving the chart that hung by her bed, "so tone down before they kick us out."

He left the blond by her bedside as he moved on to find his other teammate. It took him three verifications with various hospital admin before he was assured that she hadn't been checked in.

Where had Asuma-sensei taken her? Had he even found her to begin with?

Where was their teacher, anyway?

Finding his way back to Chōji's room, he let himself in and took a seat by the bed. He didn't know how long his best friend would be in for, but he definitely deserved his rest. Taking their teacher's incentive to heart, Chōji had unleashed his amplified body mass at the Oto-nin.

Shikamaru blamed himself for not foreseeing the Oto-nin's counter long before the matchup.

The earplugs, however, had been Chōji's own idea, and for that, he was proud of his friend. Against his own opponent, he had been even less prepared. Was it the result of laziness? Or did it constitute as arrogance? Had the encounter not been limited to one-on-one combat, he would've been slaughtered the moment the girl used her bells to mess with his mind. It was only her general wariness and caution that kept her at a distance. Fixed matchups seldom appeared in their line of work—real enemy shinobi wouldn't stand around analysing his Kagemane in a war of attrition. They'd find the quickest way to dispatch him and move on.

Being the smartest shinobi on the field didn't translate to being the wisest.

He couldn't imagine having to learn that lesson the hard way.

The food baskets by Chōji's bedside were doubtlessly gifted by his family. The multi-tiered faux lacquer bento boxes bore lightly hued animal motifs all over their polished black surfaces. The Akimichi clan not only ate well, but they also ate in style.

When the smell finally overwhelmed him, he got up for a quick peek. Spotting a brightly labeled mackerel onigiri, he devoured it without a second thought. Chōji's mother must have predicted that he would visit. He smiled at the thought. Thanks to Chōji, she could list his favorite dishes in alphabetical order and cook them better than his own mother.

"Your mum makes the best onigiri," he said, replacing the lid, "so you'd better wake up soon or you'll waste all this food."

The food enthusiast merely slumbered on.

"Ino's still missing." Shikamaru continued, speaking to no-one. "Knowing her, she's probably gone home or found someone to rage at."

Or not. For the first time ever, he truly had no idea what she would do. Ino's anger was the type that required an outlet—she wasn't the type who screamed at walls in the middle of nowhere. There was always the need to make her rage known and ever since they had been put on a team together, every single one of them had fallen victim to her tantrum spells.

Once upon a time, Sakura had been one of those outlets, along with all her friends who never made genin.

Now Sakura lay subdued under sedation due to a mess that also sent Ino into a spiraling rage that caused her to push away even her own teacher.

Neither would Shikamaru forget the glare she had thrown in his direction.

Sitting alone with his thoughts, he pondered over the newfound conundrum that was his teammate.

_How troublesome_, he mused, retreating into his mind palace to revisit the events of the day.

* * *

Please review?


	2. Chapter Two: Violets

**Disclaimer: **I don't even own the fat toad purse.

**Dedication: **For ninja-v, UWBSN2012, and TopazDragon – my first reviewers.

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**Conundrum**

_By intoxicatedasphyxiation_

* * *

**.02**

Shikamaru had looked forward to an uneventful day.

The cloud distribution rate had improved over the course of the exam, though they were still sparse enough that he wasn't predicting any major thunderstorms soon. Chōji's room provided an unobstructed view of both the sky and immediate compound of the hospital, which in turn promoted an ambience of peacefulness that encouraged rehabilitation.

All hopes dashed headfirst into the gutter the moment an incoming blur of orange charged through the door, slamming it open with enough enthusiasm to shake the walls and send a light tremor through the floorboards.

"_SHIKAMARU!_" came the soundtrack that accompanied the boom.

Any kind thoughts he once harbored for the prankster's soul immediately vacated from his mind.

"What?" he snapped irritably. Glancing over at his best friend, he wondered how anybody could maintain unconsciousness at the sound of Naruto's voice. If there was one thing he learned from Chōji's encounter, it was that he would never underestimate the effectiveness of Oto techniques ever again.

"Oi oi, is Chōji still out?" Naruto pestered, rushing up to the bed to glance down at the sleeping member of Team Ten.

_What do you think?_ Shikamaru sighed, rising from his bedside chair. "What do you want, Naruto?"

"Let's get lunch!"

"I'm not paying, if that's what you're asking."

"My treat, my treat!" the blond replied, and Shikamaru eyed him suspiciously. It wouldn't be uncharacteristic of Naruto to pull a fast one on him, being an experienced prankster and all, but most of his pranks had been saved for his teachers and Kiba, the latter of whom found them highly entertaining. Or was he hoping that Shikamaru would figure out his financial background and offer to pay instead?

Pushing his thoughts aside, he decided that a change of scenery would be good.

"Don't tell me," he sighed as realization dawned upon him, "ramen?"

Naruto's face lit up with a big smile.

* * *

True to his word, Naruto had whipped out a fat purse that looked like a toad to settle payment.

Their lunch had gone by uneventfully, if one discounted the fact that Naruto devoured bowls of ramen the way starving pack animals could tear through a carcass full of fresh meat. The fact that he barely breathed while eating was another thing that almost put Shikamaru off his own dish.

The only boon of the whole trip had been the genuine camaraderie between Naruto and the ramen stand owner. The feeling was akin to standing in the presence of the Hokage Monument for the first time. Watching them interact had been like having a bucket of something akin to wonderment and contentment thrown over him and he was glad that the blond prankster had found a place among civilians where he could belong without discrimination.

In between, there had been bites of casual conversation too, with Naruto bringing up the tribulation of accessing Sasuke's room, which had been deemed off-limits to everyone save for a few. He had tried breaking and entering a few rooms that appeared to house his teammate, but had been subdued in equal measure by chakra wards and members of the staff alike.

Like Shikamaru, he also hadn't encountered his teacher since the preliminaries.

"I want Kakashi-sensei to train me," Naruto declared when they were on the topic of teachers and training. Shikamaru held his tongue by eating his ramen. Statistically, the likelihood of the Copy Nin training Naruto was low, very low, especially with the Uchiha on his team. Training both his students was also out of the question as a conflict of interest would arise sooner or later when both of them wanted to keep their techniques secret from each other.

The fact that both teammates were clearly at different skill and improvement levels would also sever the effectiveness of combined training.

If it came down to Ino, himself, and Asuma-sensei's undivided attention, the rightful outcome was a no-brainer. Ino needed the training more than he did as her trademark technique didn't look like it would last against the psychopathic mindsets of some of the other finalists. There was a greater demand for her to have to improve her other basic skill sets, or to consider expanding her jutsu repertoire.

Naruto also revealed that he had been kicked out of the psychiatric ward when he tried to stay the night and keep Sakura company. The staff had been adamant about adhering to the strict visiting hours, though Shikamaru wondered if they simply hadn't wanted him around at night when security was at its lowest.

When Naruto asked why they allowed him to sleepover in Chōji's room, he offered the excuse that the psychiatric ward required more critical care than the normal areas.

"They can't afford to spook her," he reasoned, "since nobody knows what's going through her mind right now. Not since the match. Ino reacted badly to Asuma-sensei. Who knows what Sakura will do?"

"Where is Ino-chan anyway?" Naruto asked, to which he shrugged.

Their return to the hospital was fairly uneventful, with Naruto playing tour guide by mentioning little snippets of knowledge and gossip that he had accumulated over time about the streets, businesses, and some of the people they passed by. Whatever looks of acknowledgment he may have gotten on any other day as the sole heir of a clan head and council member were dulled by Naruto's presence beside him. While the blond was blasé about this treatment, he was not, and more than once, he found himself glaring back at some of the perpetrators.

Kakashi-sensei was already in the lobby when they entered the hospital.

"Naruto, there's someone I want you to meet," he said, cutting to the chase, "and he's going to look after your training."

Shikamaru didn't need a fortune teller to predict Naruto's reaction to that announcement. He did, however, have a few questions of his own.

"Kakashi-sensei, have you seen Asuma-sensei? Did he find Ino?"

"Hm? Well, he's around. If he hasn't found you already, he probably will soon."

Shikamaru wanted to applaud the famed shinobi's ability to literally tell him nothing with so many words.

"And Ino?" he asked, wanting to know if the jōnin was deliberately choosing to avoid his second question.

"Hmm… I'll let your sensei answer that one." Kakashi answered sagely, before turning to address all of Naruto's protests and accusations with a bored drawl.

Returning to Chōji's room, Shikamaru felt the gentle breeze before he spotted the open window. A tall vase of fresh lavender sat on the bedside table opposite the one that held all of yesterday's food.

A slim packet of labeled plant food rested beside it, affirming the identity of its giver.

Backing out of the room, he hurried down the corridors of the hospital, searching the faces of everyone he passed. As Sasuke's room was hidden and off-limits, it meant that there was only one other place that she could have gone to.

Tearing around the corner to the psychiatric ward, he caught himself on the door frame and almost tumbled into Sakura's room.

Ino stood by her rival's bed, a bouquet of violets in hand. Her short hair had been pulled back into a bun.

"Haste," Ino murmured, as he gathered his bearing, "never looked good on you."

He didn't know if it was her words or the manner in which she said them that threw him off, but her words were quiet, too quiet. For Ino, that was as abnormal as removing Chōji from a restaurant and telling him to survive without meat in a desert. Then again, he had never seen her alone, without an audience.

"I'd say the same about your disappearing act," he shot back. Whether or not she read any hostility in his tone didn't concern him in the least, so long as he was braced enough for any explosions she planned to make. Dousing fire with fire worked best with her and he hadn't forgotten yesterday's glare. "Where were you?"

She gave an _isn't-it-obvious _nod towards the bouquet that rested in her arms, before standing it upright on the bedside table.

He scowled at the gesture. Having his questions deflected by Kakashi-sensei was one thing, but Ino as well? It was almost too much. The absence of knowledge was eating away at him and he hated the feeling. He wondered if chronic gossipers often felt the same way when they misplaced their means of acquiring new information, but quickly dismissed the comparison.

He watched as she kept one hand around the stems and removed the wrapping with a smooth tug, exposing the glass of still water they arrived in. She arranged them carefully before neatly folding the wrapping paper away. When she was done, she withdrew a small packet of plant food from her pocket and placed it by the vase.

"What happened during your fight?" he asked, trying his luck. She remained silent, leaning over one of the safety bars that guarded the sides of Sakura's bed. The beeping from one of the machines echoed loudly in the room.

"Why violets, then?" he asked instead, baiting her with a topic he knew she'd never avoid. "I figured you'd bring her namesake instead."

Then came the look: _really?_ "Cherry blossoms for Sakura? How clichéd is that?" she sighed. "Plus the meaning would be all wrong, since she's not really kind and gentle. Not since she grew a spine, anyhow."

He raised an eyebrow. Ino giving Sakura any sort of acknowledgment was anomalous and peculiar, even if she was drugged out of her mind less than two feet away. Yet, it still didn't explain the violets. Ino had mentioned several times before that her father had raised her to embody the meaning of violets and that her personality mirrored the blunt, candid honesty the flower symbolized. She had often interpreted her infatuation for Uchiha Sasuke the same way, and took offense when others attempted to challenge her love for him. It was one of the reasons her friendship with Sakura had failed. Now here she stood, tall and triumphant, as her rival lay broken before her, a victim of the fallout. Were the violets a declaration of victory?

Or was he reading too much into this?

"I'm not taunting her, if that's what you think." Ino said, startling him with her intuitive acuity. "It's just that… we both saw things. Things we probably weren't meant to see."

"And yet, it happened anyway." Shikamaru pointed out, wording his implications carefully. The flicker of sadness that entered her eyes was quickly masked away with a flash of anger in the tightening of her jaw. She tapped the top bar lightly with her fingers—a sign of simmering agitation, if any—before pulling away in a quick move to escape.

He pressed his back against the door, blocking the exit.

"Really?" she asked, with a drawl that was almost sardonic. He almost winced.

"I could always use Kagemane instead," he replied coolly, in a tone that was nothing short of serious. She raised an eyebrow, looking almost impressed.

"Now _threats_…" she leaned in, lowering her voice to a mere whisper, "they could look good on you."

He blinked, shocked by her announcement. She pursed her lips as she studied him and he shifted uncomfortably under her gaze.

"But you won't," she continued, and it took him a moment to realize that she was answering his challenge, "because it's a violation of the trust we have as teammates. You could claim that you were doing it for my sake, but we both know that that'll never cut it. Not with me. So step aside."

This time, it was he who was impressed, though he was also partly disturbed. To say something… like _that_, then to follow it up with a methodical dissection of his rationalization process… What happened to the Ino with temper tantrums and where did she go?

"What the hell happened to you?" he asked quietly, his confusion clear. She stepped towards him and he moved aside, albeit reluctantly.

"I won a fight and decimated my ex-best friend," she replied frigidly, sliding the door open. "You tell me."

* * *

Chōji's mother replenished the never-ending food supply of barbecued delicacies in the evening an hour after Chōji awoke. Showing little concern for the previously uneaten majority of the first batch, she handed a freshly made mackerel bento to Shikamaru, who thanked her profusely by consuming it heartily.

The medic, however, warned Chōji against devouring solid foodstuff—at least for the next few days. For an Akimichi, that was equivalent to being forced on a vegan diet for an entire year, so Shikamaru could only watch as Chōji wolfed down several bowls of soup, only to follow up with two bento boxes of barbecued beef.

He barely finished his own meal by the time Chōji begged for a third.

Ino hadn't returned, but his best friend had lightened up when he saw the lavenders by his bed. Neither of them knew its secret flower meaning, but it had opened up conversation about their teammate rather effectively, and Shikamaru was honestly glad that Chōji was back in the game. He always valued his childhood friend's opinion and Ino's sudden change in behaviour was honestly too baffling to resolve alone in the confines of his mind palace—he needed a secondary perspective and Chōji always fit that mold perfectly.

"What do you remember?" he asked, once Chōji's mother departed. "About Ino and Sakura's fight."

"Well…" his friend replied, pondering deeply, "Ino cut her hair, used it to trap Sakura with her Shintenshin, and then…" He paused, furrowing his brow. "She was about to forfeit, then… uh. Naruto started yelling."

"It is possible for the victim to eject the Shintenshin's user from their mind," he said as a statement rather than a question, and Chōji nodded in concurrence. "So it's possible for Ino to have been distracted enough that it gave Sakura a foothold to reclaim her mind. It would have been doubly effective because she was already aware of the intrusion." Realization and identification, after all, were always the first steps in countering another technique.

"Yeah, but it's her best technique," Chōji asserted. "During practice, we've seen her use it, and distractions on that level don't affect her hold. There are only three ways that a person can break out of it—by forcing her to retreat, having the psychological willpower to eject her, or dying. Sakura isn't a seasoned jōnin, so the second option looks unlikely to me."

"Normally I'd agree," Shikamaru said, "but…" He thought back to his earlier encounter with his other teammate. "Ino said that they both saw things that they probably weren't meant to see. Those exact words. That shouldn't be possible. The Shintenshin operates one-way only, and even if someone were to find a way to reverse it… _Sakura?_" He had reassessed his evaluation of the girl several times over and found that his conclusions about her always amounted to the same. Whatever potential the girl had, if any, still hadn't been properly channeled or honed. She was Ino's equal at best, and Ino had always been the more dominant and manipulative of the two. Yet, nothing else explained Ino's strange confession.

However, if one took that out of the equation, it left only the first of the three options: Ino's forced retreat. But the release process was a smooth one and wouldn't have resulted in… whatever this outcome was.

"How troublesome," he sighed, just as Chōji barraged him with questions.

"Well…did she say? Was it an execution error? What about Asuma-sensei? Did he say anything?"

He simply shrugged. "I haven't seen Asuma-sensei since he went after Ino, and I only saw her once today, when she was dropping off flowers for you and Sakura. She wasn't really in a sharing mood." In fact, he couldn't even categorize her exact temperament. There had been echoes of her normal self behind some of the teasing words and the way she talked about Sakura, but there was also a new edge to her that Shikamaru couldn't quite put a finger on. Behind her usual confidence, there was a deeper, darker personality taking root, and it took all of her fiery personality and repackaged it into something colder and shrewder, like a newfound razorblade.

"Do you think Asuma-sensei will still treat me to barbecue?" Chōji asked anxiously. "I mean… I didn't exactly win."

It always was so typical of Chōji to worry about his next meal. If he didn't think it would hurt his feelings, Shikamaru might have laughed.

"Yeah, sure," he replied, "but if he doesn't… well, you can have my share, I guess."

"Thanks, Shikamaru." Chōji smiled, fully appeased.

Shikamaru leaned by the window, glancing out. He could see half the city fully lit in the dark. It was as though a whole different side of Konoha emerged at night, causing its beauty to be different, more exotic than its daytime counterpart.

"So do you know who you're up against in the finals?" Chōji asked, watching the same view.

"Yeah…" Shikamaru replied with an uncomfortable grimace, remembering the exact moment when the announcement of the matchups had been made. He had cursed his luck then, just as much as he still cursed it now.

"That bad, huh? Or are you fighting another girl?" Chōji laughed, until he saw the dour look. "Is it Ino?" he almost whispered, his eyes widening in horror.

"No, nothing so tragic," he replied. "Though it could be," he added darkly.

"You wanna talk about it?" his friend asked, his hand twitching as though missing a packet of chips.

He considered the offer, before changing his mind. There were some things he preferred dealing with on his own.

"I'll deal with it once Asuma-sensei gets back," he sighed listlessly. "For now… there's Ino to worry about."

* * *

Asuma-sensei came in long after most of the village's businesses turned in for the night.

Shikamaru and Chōji had been reaching the endgame of their latest shogi match when their teacher slipped into the room.

"Teaching Chōji strategy?" he asked inquisitively, looking down at the board between them to study their moves.

"Nice to see you too, sensei." Shikamaru replied, with just the right amount of drawl. "Been busy the last two days?"

Their teacher grimaced. It was strange seeing him without a lit cigarette on hand, but he supposed that that was what hospital staff members were good for. They had, after all, been so attentive when handling Naruto.

"Some things came up," he said, "but I'm here now. I heard about your win, Shikamaru. Congratulations, by the way. How about you, Chōji? Feeling better?"

"I woke up around dinnertime," Chōji said jovially, "and the medic said that I should be out in a day or two."

"After Ino's match, did you find her?" Shikamaru asked, wasting no time. Asuma seemed to age as he processed the question.

"Yeah, about her…" he said, taking a chair, "she went into a near fit when I tried to corner her. She only calmed down when I threatened to tell her father, but then she started lecturing me about personal space and told me to—" He sighed, like a vanquished father who just discovered that his preteen daughter no longer thought the world of him.

"Well, she dropped in this afternoon," Shikamaru reported, nodding towards the lavenders on Chōji's bedside. "Whatever it is, she's just as affected as Sakura, and she implied that the minds of both parties were susceptible during the Shintenshin."

Asuma looked up at him sharply. "What were her exact words?" he asked. Shikamaru recognized this as his teacher's official _no-nonsense_ mode.

He repeated what he told Chōji earlier.

"This is…" The jōnin sounded grave.

"Unheard of?" Shikamaru offered.

"What else did she tell you?" Asuma asked, just as the door shifted open after a soft knock.

A purple haired ANBU member stood rigidly at the door, surveying the inhabitants of the room in a standard sweep, before turning to their teacher. She wore a white mask painted with red lines in an animal motif that Shikamaru couldn't identify. Though he couldn't see her face, there was something about her body language that subtly screamed that she was shaken.

"The medics say he'll be in surgery for a few hours," she said in a voice that struggled to remain impassive, "they're not sure if he'll survive."

"Wait, did something happen to Sasuke?" Shikamaru asked, alarmed by the sudden revelation. After all, hadn't something gone wrong with the rookie of the year in the Forest of Death? Did he have a relapse?

"Does Kakashi know?" Asuma interjected, bypassing his query, and she tilted her head in a gesture that could only mean _no_.

"I'm on my way to find him now," she answered, before glancing ahead to address the troubled Nara, "and no, this doesn't involve Uchiha Sasuke."

"Was yours the first team on the scene?" Asuma asked, deeply embedded in the discussion.

"Yes," she replied quietly. "Hippo found him first. He's keeping watch."

With a final tilt of her head, she vanished quickly, and their teacher looked torn between staying and leaving.

"What's going on?" Shikamaru asked, fingering one of the few shogi pieces left on the board.

The older man seemed to study his two students for a moment, as though weighing the confidentiality of the knowledge he was holding back.

"Your referee…" he said, after a long silence, "the one who presided over your preliminary matches… he was attacked in the village just over an hour ago." Shikamaru took in the full gravity of those words.

"So that's why you showed up at this hour," he said, drawing the secondary conclusion first, and his implication was clear. _You didn't come in to check on your own student, Chōji, who was out for more than a day._

Asuma sighed wearily and his fingers twitched in a way that seemed obvious he needed a smoke.

"What's so special about the attack?" he continued, mulling over his teacher's words. "There's something you're not saying."

"You're over thinking this. There are no hidden meanings in what I just said."

Borrowing a page from the new Ino, he gave his teacher a surveying look. "If he was a close friend, you would have asked after his injuries or gone straight to him, especially if the situation was as bad as she made it sound. Instead, you came here first and for some reason, it's more important that Kakashi-sensei knows about this. This either means that he's a close friend of Kakashi's or that you suspect that the attack is linked to… maybe one of his students. _You know…_ the one that the hospital staff is keeping hidden away, presumably under a security detail…"

"She just told you that Uchiha Sasuke isn't involved in this," Asuma reminded him, neither confirming nor denying anything.

"She was only responding to the context of my question. Plus, what she knows and what you suspect may be two entirely different things on different security clearance levels. She was clearly shaken, which means that she probably knew the victim well—motives may mean less to her while having to deal with whether or not he will live. If I'm wrong about this being linked to Sasuke, then it means that Kakashi-sensei is actually a close friend of his, and since we've already established that you're probably not, this leaves the big question of why you're actually here." Shikamaru paused as he gathered his conclusion. "This means that there was something special about the attack that relates to either something you know or something you have. You were called in for a reason."

"You're taking quite a few leaps there," the jōnin said quietly, "and you're making several assumptions about how I may or may not treat my friends and colleagues. It's a general requirement for shinobi to maintain their professionalism, regardless of circumstances."

"Yeah, but you don't strike me as the cold, emotionless type," he shrugged with a lazy smile, catching Chōji's wide-eyed look before glancing back to meet his teacher's gaze. "And you also haven't told me that I'm wrong."

By then, their teacher had taken out one of his cigarettes.

"I can't confirm or deny anything," he said, getting up to leave, "but I'm sure that I don't need to remind you that anything you may or may not have heard was for your ears only. The same goes for anything you may or may not have deduced from the former."

Chōji swallowed nervously while Shikamaru simply inclined his head in acquiescence.

"In the meantime," the Sarutobi added, "track Ino down by tomorrow and tell her that she can talk to me alone or in front of the whole team. We'll also need to discuss your training for the finals. And no, Chōji, that doesn't exclude you."

"Will this discussion be in a barbecue restaurant?" Chōji chimed in, his priorities clear.

"…Sure." Asuma replied hesitantly, no doubt considering the eventual lightness of his wallet. "But if you really want to eat, get yourself checked out by tomorrow at the latest. I'll set the team meeting at our usual place for lunch the day after tomorrow. Are we good?"

* * *

Please review. I'll trade you hugs and send you mini excerpts of the next chapter!


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